Daniel Barry: Walk All Ways (2007)

How we rate: our writers tend to review music they like within their preferred genres.

For those listeners acquainted with Daniel Barry's musical journey only through his conductor/arranger gig with the Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra (SWOJO) and their fine traditional, straight-ahead sets under his directorshipDreamcatcher (OA2 Records, 2006) and Meeting of the Water (OA2 Records, 2007)the man's music under his own name may be a bit of a surprise. While his SWOJO sound is an easy categorization, Barry's Walk All Ways couldn't possibly be harder to pin a label on.

The instrumentation will lend some idea as to the sound: violin, cello, woodwinds (bass clarinet, clarinet, flute), accordion, bass, drums, and congas, along with Barry's cornet and melodica, plus a bunch of percussion. The music this globally borderless chamber-like group makes can sound old world, folk song European one momentwith its sweet, expansive accordion washes dancing with the more succinct violin notes on "Nini's Dream"or darkly South American the next, on "La Folia Lando," that opens with a despondent bass clarinet cry in front of an accordion drone, later joined by the rich cello tone and the low resonance, knock-on-the door sound of the Peruvian cajon behind Barry's tangy-yet melancholic cornet rumination.

"Mighty Urubamba" opens the set, with congas punctuating a fluid chamber sound, Barry out front on his horn. "Pharoah's Gathering" shakes to life with a glittering jangle of percussion behind accordion and flute, and brings the exuberant, highly dance-able Zulu jive sound to mind, while "Junebug" explores a more serious landscape, with a dark woodwind sound swirling around the cello and violin that gives way to the accordion underlain by a booming percussion.

Walk All Ways veers a long way from the mainstream vision of the Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra approach, but it's sensuous rhythms and vivacious mix of world/classical/jazz sounds makes it a gorgeously unique listening experience.